5 Places You Should Bring Your Resume

Come Recommended

Mar. 6, 2013, 3:04 PM

In the job search, your resume is kind of like your best friend. It does all the talking for you, shows you off in the best light, and is completely portable. If it's such an awesome tool, why would you ever walk around without it?

As your professional introduction, your resume should be by your side as often as possible. Check out these five places you should always bring your resume:

Work

You might think, What? Why would I bring my resume into work if I'm already gainfully employed? While you're obviously not going to be using it all that often — a couple of copies of your resume stored in your desk allows you to bring one out whenever an opportunity comes your way. Some companies actually require resumes for internal promotions.

If not your resume, keep several business cards with you on these occasions. Networking events are a subtle job opportunity. Business owners who attend might not be openly hiring, but if you get in the right conversation, a connection can be made and established when you hand over a card or resume.

Class

College students, keep a resume in your laptop bag, Trapper Keeper, or wherever you keep other papers. Apart from an enriching learning experience (that's why you make it to that 8 a.m. class, right?), classes are full of job opportunities. From time to time, a professor might announce a scholarship or have a guest speaker come. The prepared student is a happy student.

This one confuses a lot of people. After all, why should I bring a resume to an interview? If I got the interview, then they've read my resume already—so, what's the point? Resumes are valuable at an interview for several reasons. First, it's possible the person interviewing you isn't the one who looked at your resume. Second, sometimes there are multiple people interviewing you, so they have to share one copy. Third, you might get turned down for the position and then offered the opportunity to apply to another position.

Job fairs

This one seems like an obvious one, but as a job fair veteran, I can tell you that it's clearly not obvious to most people. Job fairs are chock-full of employers looking to hire. It only makes sense to bring a bunch of resumes to pass around. Keep in mind that a resume needs a follow-up a day or two after the job fair in question. That puts you at the top of the pile.

Gerrit Hall is the CEO and co-founder of RezScore, a free web application that reads, analyzes, and grades resumes - instantly. Gerrit has successfully combined his passion for computer science and the careers space by helping job seekers write the best resume possible. Gerrit is a regular contributor to the startup advice site Bootstrapper, hosts the "Vital Topics" panel of the Road2Shambala podcast, and spearheaded the 2log competitive blogging platform. You can connect with Gerrit and RezScore on Facebook and Twitter.